UNC Appoints First Female Chancellor

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --The country's oldest public university is celebrating its birthday by installing its first female leader.

Carol Folt, the former interim president at Dartmouth College, is scheduled to be installed on Saturday as the 11th chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The ceremony occurs on University Day, which began in 1877 to commemorate the 1793 placing of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation's first state university building.

Since 1957, UNC-Chapel Hill has installed chancellors on the date.

UNC System President Tom Ross will preside at the ceremony.

Folt replaces Holden Thorp, the UNC-Chapel Hill leader since 2008 who decided to resign last year after his leadership was marred by a string of scandals involving academic fraud, improper travel spending by fundraisers and special treatment for athletes.